The Demon Lords

Chapter 545 51 Current Compilation_4

"Aren't you afraid I'll hand you over to His Majesty, my Yan Emperor? Perhaps, in his delight, he might reward me with thousands of warhorses. It's certainly possible."

"Brother Zheng, you jest," Yao Zizhan replied. "If I were captured on the battlefield, I believe Emperor Yan would willingly pay the price of three thousand iron cavalry. Qian has prided itself on being foremost in culture for many years; destroying the pride of the Qian people with three thousand iron cavalry? That would be worth it. However, I came here alone, with only a few followers. Even if you were to send me to Yanjing, Brother Zheng, Emperor Yan would find me as unappetizing as a chicken rib—hardly worth the trouble. He might even think you're meddling. To put it bluntly, an emperor's house is never drafty; all they care about is maintaining appearances."

"I have learned much."

"You flatter me."

"Alright, everyone, time to head back," Zheng Fan ordered.

A Ming, clutching the remains of his waterskin, rose from a coffin and muttered to himself, "It's all been so unexpectedly anticlimactic."

"Isn't anticlimactic good?" the blind man said, turning towards A Ming.

"I just feel it lacked a few twists and turns, made it less dramatic."

"Dramatic? Think you're some kind of Shakespeare, A Ming?" Xue Three scoffed. San'er's jealousy of A Ming was obvious, especially since he himself had inadvertently helped A Ming advance, which only irked him more.

A Ming continued, "Well, it's good we can return safely. I'll need to find a village on the way and get some wine, or these wounds of mine will take forever to heal."

"Shut your mouth," the blind man retorted. "We're all in this together. Stop trying to jinx things."

"I'm not A Cheng. What's there to be afraid of?"

"Hah! A Cheng might be a jinx, but you're hardly a lucky charm yourself, are you?"

Xue Three nudged the blind man's knee. "Don't be so blunt," he cautioned. "You'll hurt his feelings."

The group began to head back, Zheng Fan and Yao Zizhan walking side-by-side.

"Master Yao, how do we close this bronze door?" Zheng Fan asked.

"Once we're outside, just drip a little blood onto the bronze mirror. The mechanism will react and seal it."

"The descendants of the Helian family must be truly prone to anemia then."

"Anemia? Is that a disease? Oh, a lack of blood?"

"Sort of."

"Heh, the Helian family is very populous, with countless main and collateral branches, sprawling everywhere."

"And now?"

Yao Zizhan sighed.

Just then, the bronze door before them suddenly groaned and began to close!

Xue Three instantly shot forward. A Ming dashed ahead too. Mr. Chen sprang into action. Even Zheng Fan, in that split second, snatched the Mo Wan from his robes and hurled it at the closing door.

However, the bronze door, open by merely a meter, was shutting with incredible speed. Mr. Chen was the swiftest, his sword just managing to pierce the rapidly shrinking gap. But as the bronze door slammed completely shut, the blade became firmly wedged within it. The others were a fraction too slow. The Mo Wan slammed hard against the bronze door, then rebounded back into Zheng Fan's hand.

The blind man looked at A Ming, who was in front of him, and said, "There's the drama you were hoping for."

Zheng Fan shook his head. "Drama usually brings melodrama with it." Saying this, he turned to Fanli. "Ah Li, use that booming voice of yours and shout to see who's out there."

Fanli nodded. He pounded the bronze door three times with his fist, then bellowed, "Who is outside?"

"It's me, Gesang!" a voice responded from beyond the bronze door.

"Helian Gesang!" someone inside exclaimed.

Gesang, on the other side, seemed to say a great deal more, but the thick bronze door muffled his words. Only fragments of sentences, a few words here and there, were intelligible, making it impossible to discern his full meaning. Yao Zizhan pressed his ear tightly against the bronze door, straining to listen, but still, he could not make out the words clearly.

Zheng Fan patted Yao Zizhan's shoulder. "Master Yao, shall I translate for you? He's saying he's an illegitimate son of the Helian family, forced to live as a wild man in Geda Mountain, barred from entering either Jin State or the Central Plains. He claims that despite possessing great talent, his family never acknowledged him, leaving him with no future and no prospects. His lineage, he says, is doomed to remain wild people for generations. His betrayal was forced upon him by his family's cruelty—their lack of benevolence justified his disloyalty. And he vows that he will stage a comeback one day and restore the former glory of his Helian ancestors."

"Brother Zheng, is your hearing truly that terrifyingly acute?" Yao Zizhan asked, astonished.

Zheng Fan shook his head. "I just made it all up."